Pakistan’s Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Fawad Chaudhry, has denied reports that coalition partners of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party are planning to pull out of the upcoming Punjab elections. This comes after reports emerged that several coalition partners were unhappy with the PTI’s performance in the province and were considering withdrawing their support.
Chaudhry dismissed these reports as baseless and said that the PTI’s coalition partners were fully committed to contesting the elections together. He added that the PTI had a strong track record of working with its coalition partners and that this would continue in the future.
The Punjab elections are set to take place in 2023 and are seen as a crucial test for the PTI, which has been in power since 2018. The province is considered a stronghold of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, which has won the majority of seats in previous elections. The PTI is hoping to make significant gains in Punjab in order to consolidate its position nationally.